Content
The Value of Travelling: A Global Study .... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Foreword by m om ondo ................................................................... 3
1. Executive sum m ary ..................................................................... 4
2. Reading guide ............................................................................ 6
3. M ethodology .............................................................................. 7
4. Literature review ......................................................................... 9
5. Travelling across the world ....................................................... 11
5.1. Global travels patterns ....................................................................................... 13
5.2. Individual assessments of the effects of travelling ....................................... 18
6. The effects of travelling on trust .............................................. 24
6.1. Travel measures ....................................................................................................24
6.2. Trust measures......................................................................................................25
6.3. Effects of travelling on trust ................................................................................29
7. Conclusion ............................................................................... 32
Appendix A: Results from regression analysis ............................... 34
Appendix B: Education variable coding ........................................ 36
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Foreword
What is the value of travelling? Most people who have travelled will probably
recognize that travelling, besides physically taking us to new places around the
world, also makes us look differently at the world. And the many different cultures it contains. That travelling provides us with valuable experiences and
opens our mind to all that is out there.
At momondo, we have a vision of a world where our differences are a source of
inspiration and development, not intolerance and prejudice. However, despite
technology having connected us all across the world, narrow-mindedness is
still a facet of everyday life. According to this report, 48 percent of the 7,200
respondents surveyed believe that there is more prejudice and narrowmindedness today than five years ago. Only 16 percent believe the opposite.
We decided to commission this global study in order to explore the relationship between travelling and thus open-mindedness and determine whether
travelling really does bring us closer together. A number of academic studies
have studied the correlation between travelling and open-mindedness. The
methodology of all these previous studies, however, were either qualitative
with emphasis on a few cases or quantitative with a narrow focus e.g. conducted among students. We wanted to examine this globally by conducting a survey-based study.
Overall, the results of this study clearly state that travelling makes us more trusting and open-minded towards others. The findings suggest that travelling can
be a weapon in fighting and minimizing our own prejudice and narrowmindedness. When we travel, we meet new people, try new things and experience new cultures. By leaving our comfort zone and leap into unknown territory, travelling gives us new experiences and perspectives and makes us more
open-minded.
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1. Executive summary
The purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between travelling, trust
and thus open-mindedness.
In this study 7,292 demographically representative people across 18 countries
participated including countries from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
Overall, the study shows a positive statistically significant correlation between
travelling and trust in other people in general, trust in people from other nationalities and trust in people from other religions, which indicates that travelling increases openness towards other people. This correlation is strong, even
after variables such as gender, income, age and education are controlled for.
The effects travelling has on trust are studied across a number of different
measures of travelling and trust. All with the same conclusion: Travelling makes
you more trusting of other people.
In addition, when respondents were asked directly about their experiences with
travelling, the results point to the same conclusion. The majority of people believe that travelling has given them a more positive view on people from the
countries they have visited, other cultures in general and on differences and
diversity. The majority of respondents also believe there would be less prejudice in the world, less intolerance and more peace in the world if people travelled more – all findings that support the main finding from a regression analysis in this study: that travelling makes us more trusting of other people when
looking at three different measures of trust. Furthermore, people who have
visited 45-50 countries have 22 percentage points more trust in people they
meet for the first time than people who have visited a maximum of five countries.
Key findings from the study:
•
The study concludes that travelling increases trust in others
•
This correlation is strong, even after variables such as gender, income,
age and education are controlled for
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•
48 percent believe that people are less tolerant of other cultures today
than five years ago
•
76 percent say that travelling has made them look more positively on
differences and diversity
•
76 percent say that travelling has given them a more positive view on
other cultures in general
•
75 percent say that travelling has given them a more positive view on
people from the countries they have visited
•
65 percent believe that there would be less prejudice in the world if
people travelled more
•
61 percent believe that there would be less intolerance in the world if
people travelled more
•
53 percent believe that there would be more peace in the world if
people travelled more
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2. Reading guide
In the following report, we elaborate on the different elements of the study,
present, discuss and analyse the results.
The next chapter, chapter 3, is a description of the methodology used in this
study.
In chapter 4, we present a brief literature review on some of the more noticeable academic studies centred on the effects travel has on open-mindedness.
In chapters 5 and 6, we will present the results from the survey. Firstly, global
travel patterns as well as self-assessed effect of travelling is presented.
In chapter 6, we look further into the value of travelling. To be more precise,
regression analysis is used to estimate the effects of travelling on three dimensions of trust in others.
Finally, we summarize the results, findings and impacts of the study in
the conclusion.
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3. Methodology
“The Value of Travelling” study consists of answers from 7,292 respondents in
total with 400 respondents from each of the following 18 countries: Australia,
Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and
the United States.
The “The Value of Travelling” study was conducted by Radius, an independent,
Danish-based research, communication and strategy consultancy with more
than 10 years´ experience in turning research and analyses into valuable insights for companies and organisations all over the world.
The figure below illustrates the global scale of the study.
Figure 3.1. Visualization of the global scale of the study.
Data was collected using online questionnaires. Online questionnaires are preferred when reaching out to a wide range of respondents in many countries,
which was important in terms of the global nature of the study. In addition, the
online survey design makes it easy to compare results across countries in the
study because questions and response categories are similar across countries.
The online questionnaires were distributed via Cint’s panels in each country.
Cint is a software company specialized in valid data collection across the
world. Respondents are demographically representative regarding gender,
age, and region. The data collection took place from February 2 to February 9,
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2016. Professional translators translated the questionnaire into the thirteen
different native languages of the 18 countries surveyed.
The margin of sampling error at the 95% level of confidence is ±1.5 for the
global report (7,200 respondents), and ±4.9 for each country (400 respondents). This means that 95 times in one hundred, when a sample of this size and
composition is drawn, findings will not differ by more than 1.5 percentage
points in either direction for the total sample, and plus or minus 4.9 percentage points within each country. In short, this points to an overall strong validity
for the results of the survey.
In order to simplify the visual overview in the report, the 18 countries only appear by their country codes in some of the graphs, figures, and tables in this
report. We have used the following country codes:
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4. Notable studies on travelling and trust
Several studies have already investigated the sociological effects of travelling.
Some of the more notable studies are listed in the table below. Most of these
studies point to the fact that travelling and intergroup contact increase openmindedness in terms of trust.
It is important to note that many of these studies are based on experiments.
Many social scientists agree on the fact that experimental designs is the primary tool to identify causal relationships, i.e. whether travelling increases trust or
that trustful people tends to travel more. The fact that at least two of the four
studies establish a causal effect of travelling on trust using experimental designs suggests that open-mindedness can be increased by travelling more.
Table 4.1. O verview of studies of the effects of travelling
Authors
University
Title
Method
Findings
Brannon &
Walton (2013)
Stanford University,
USA
How Intergroup
Contact Reduces
Prejudice by Sparking Interest in an
Out-Group’s
Culture
Social experiments with
51 students from North
American universities
Intergroup contact increased positive attitudes
towards people with
another cultural background.
Cao, Galinsky
& Maddux
(2013)
Northwestern University, USA
Columbia University, USA
INSEAD, France
A combination of longitudinal studies and experiments with 237
North American students as participants
Social trust increases with
number of countries
visited
Scarinci &
Pearce (2011)
Northwood University, USA
James Cook University, Australia
Does travel broaden the mind?
Breadth and foreign experiences
increase generalized trust
The perceived
influence of travel
experiences on
learning generic
skills
Travelling leads to people
being more independent, more open-minded
and feeling comfortable
around all kinds of people
Tadmor, Galinsky & Maddux (2012)
Tel Aviv University,
Israel
Northwestern University, USA
INSEAD, France
Statistical comparisons
between travellers and
non-travellers on a range
of generic skills across
90 students from
Northwood University in
the US
Statistical comparisons
between bicultural and
unicultural students.
Between 54 and 100
students participated in
these studies.
Getting the Most
Out of Living
Abroad: Biculturalism and Integrative
Complexity as Key
Drivers of Creative
and Professional
Success
Bicultural (people identifying with more than one
culture) tends to be more
creative and have more
professional success.
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All of the studies are either qualitative with an emphasis on limited cases, or
quantitative with a narrow focus (e.g. on students). In other words, the link between travelling and open-mindedness has been established, but for the most
part, in the context of small samples of North American students.
This study fills a void in the existing research. The comprehensive dataset with
7,200 respondents from all over the world, enables us to draw statistically significant conclusions on the correlation between travelling, trust and thus openmindedness on a global scale.
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5. Travelling across the world
In this chapter we establish that there is a widely held view, that intolerance is
more prevalent today than five years ago. Secondly, in order to establish
whether there is a link between travelling and open-mindedness to a global
extent, we examine global travel behaviour. In this study, we look at three different travel measures.
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Table 5.1. Assessm ent of tolerance developm ent distributed on
countries
Statement: People are less tolerant today towards other cultures than five years ago.
The table indicates how many people agree or strongly agree with the statement.
While almost half of the respondents believe that people are less tolerant towards other cultures today than five years ago, only 16 percent disagree with
this claim. There are, however, geographical differences ranging from China
and Russia, where a smaller percentage believe there is less tolerance today, to
France, Turkey, Italy and the US where more than half the people believe there
is less tolerance in the world today.
This identifies a growing concern about intolerance among people across the
world. The results from the analysis in Chapter 6 will answer whether more travelling can fight intolerance. Before any conclusions are drawn, we will examine
global travel patterns.
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5.1.
Global travel patterns
First, the respondents were asked how many times a year they typically travel
abroad.
Figure 5.1.1. Travel frequency
Question: How many times a year do you typically travel abroad?
The figure shows that 60 percent travel abroad a maximum of once per year.
10 percent travel abroad 4 times or more per year.
In the figure below, the results are split up country by country in order to show
the difference in travel patterns across nations.
Figure 5.1.2. The num ber of travels abroad per year
Question: How many times a year do you typically travel abroad?
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Globally, people travel abroad 1.7 times a year on average. But as the above
figure shows, there are differences between the countries. In the top five of
travelling nations, we find Norway, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Germany.
In the bottom five, we find South Africa, Russia, Australia, USA and Portugal.
In addition, respondents were asked how many countries they have visited in
order to explore different travel patterns around the world.
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Figure 5.1.3. Num ber of countries visited
Question: How many countries have you visited?
As the figure reveals, 51 percent have visited between 0-5 countries – and 74
percent have visited a maximum of 10 countries. 7 percent have visited more
than 20 countries.
In the figure below, the responses to this question are once again distributed
across countries.
Figure 5.1.4. Num ber of countries visited, distributed on countries (M ore than 10 countries)
Question: How many countries have you visited?
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As the above figure shows, there are significant differences in how many countries people visit depending on where they live. Norway, Denmark, Sweden, UK
and Germany are among the nations that have visited most countries.
Countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Turkey, on the other
hand, don’t travel abroad as often.
Once again, it is clear that Europeans are the ones who have visited the most
countries. They have visited 10 or more countries to a much higher degree
than people from other parts of the world. Especially the share of people from
the Nordic countries who have visited more than 10 countries is large compared to the other countries in the study.
Having revealed the frequency of travel abroad, we now explore the extent to
which people consider themselves well-travelled. In addition to the two travel
measures above, this question asks for a subjective assessment of to which
extent people see themselves as well-travelled. The respondents were asked:
to what extent do you consider yourself a well-travelled person?
Figure 5.1.5. Subjective feeling of being well-travelled
Question: To what extent do you consider yourself to be a well-travelled person?
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Almost two in five consider themselves to be well-travelled to some extent. It
can also be noted that more people see themselves as well-travelled to a low
extent than to a high extent.
When splitting across countries, differences emerge across countries:
Figure 5.1.6. Assessm ent of feeling well-travelled, distributed
on countries
Question: To what extent do you consider yourself a well-travelled person?
The figure indicates how many people are feeling well-travelled to a high or very high extent.
Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Norway and Spain are the five countries where people
to the highest extent consider themselves well-travelled. It is notable that despite feeling most well-travelled, Brazilians did not score high on the question
about travel frequencies and were in the bottom countries regarding number
of different countries visited. On the other hand, Norway and Germany scored
high on both these questions.
This figure also shows that countries such as Russia, France, Italy, South Africa
and Australia are the ones who consider themselves least well-travelled. Russia
and South Africa were also found to score low on the questions about travel
frequency and number of different countries visited, whereas France and Italy
were placed around the middle in the two questions.
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Overall, it was found that Europeans tend to travel abroad more frequently
than people in other parts of the world and they also visit more different countries during their times abroad. The feeling of being well-travelled, however,
seems to not always be directly connected to these two factors.
5.2.
Individual assessments of the effects of travelling
In order to examine the self-assessed effects of travelling, respondents were
asked to that extent they agree with the following statements:
a. If people travelled more there would be less prejudice in the world
b. If people travelled more there would be less intolerance in the world
c. If people travelled more there would be more peace in the world
Figure 5.2.1. Assessed general effects of travelling
Question: How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements on travelling and
people?
The figure indicates how many people who agree or strongly agree with the statement.
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Overall, people have great faith in the positive outcomes of travelling and they
strongly believe that travelling could help relieve negative attitudes such as
prejudice and intolerance. More than half of the respondents agreed with the
statement that more travelling would lead to more peace in the world.
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Table 5.2.1. Assessed general effects of travelling, distributed
on countries
Question: How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements on travelling and
people?
The table shows how many people who agree or strongly agree with the statement.
If we look at the distribution on the different countries, the statements receive
the most support from countries outside Europe in e.g. Mexico, Brazil, China,
Turkey and South Africa. Countries in Northern Europe agree less with the
statements but there is still, however, an overall wide support for the perception of positive effects of travelling and the belief that travelling can help prevent prejudice and intolerance.
The countries that agree the least are found in Scandinavia. 33 percent of the
Danes believe that if people travelled more there would be more peace in the
world.
The country distribution thus shows that beliefs and perceptions of travelling
outcomes greatly differ across longitude, latitude and culture but despite
some nations not agreeing, people believe that travelling brings positive outcomes.
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The following statements were presented to the respondents regarding personal effects of travelling:
a. Travelling has given me a more positive view on people from the countries I have visited
b. Travelling has given me a more positive view on other cultures in general
c. Travelling has made me look more positively on differences and diversity
Figure 5.2.2. Assessm ent of personal effects of travelling
Question: How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements on your travelling
experience?
The figure indicates how many people who agree or strongly agree with the statement.
As the figure illustrates, three quarters agree or strongly agree that travelling
has given them a more positive view on people from the countries they have
visited. 76 percent globally agreed or strongly agreed with both other statements.
Overall, these results contribute to a portrayal of the effects of travelling in
people’s personal lives. It is notable that the positive effects of travelling are not
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only something that people imagine could be a reality but actually has a real
impact on their lives.
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Table 5.2.2. Assessm ent of personal effects of travelling,
distributed on countries
Question: How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements on your travelling
experience? The table indicates how many people who agree or strongly agree with the statement.
As table 5.2.2. depicts, it can once again be noted that there is a tendency of
countries outside Europe having stronger beliefs about the positive effects of
travelling.
All Scandinavian countries are again found in the bottom six, thus portraying
the less agreeing attitude towards the statements. It is notable, however, that
despite being the least agreeing country in the study regarding these statements, the majority of Finns still think that travelling has given them a more
positive view on people from countries they have visited, on other cultures in
general, and has made them look more positively on differences and diversity
with 62 percent, 63 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
To sum up, global travel patterns and self-assessed effects of travelling have
been explored in this chapter. In regard to the self-assessed effects of travelling, there is wide-spread global belief in a long range of positive effects of
travelling.
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6. The effects of travelling on trust
In this chapter, we will look at the effects of travelling on three dimensions of
trust. In this study, we will look at trust in people you meet for the first time, trust
in people of another religion and trust in people of another nationality. The
effects of travelling on these three measures of trust is calculated using linear
regression analysis.
In the first two sections of this chapter, the travel variables as well as the trust
variables used in the regression analysis are outlined. In the third and final section of this chapter, the results from the regressions analysis is presented.
6.1.
Travel measures
To investigate the effects of travelling, we used the three travel measures presented in chapter 5.1. The three questions and the corresponding response
categories are shown in table 6.1.1.:
Table 6.1.1. O verview of travel variables
To
what
you
extent
feel
do
How
many
well-
year
do
times
you
a
travel
How many countries
have you visited?
travelled?
abroad?
1.
To a very low extent
1.
None
1.
0-5 countries
2.
To a low extent
2.
1
2.
6-10 countries
3.
To some extent
3.
2
3.
11-15 countries
4.
To a high extent
4.
3
4.
16-20 countries
5.
To a very high extent
5.
4
5.
21-25 countries
6.
5
6.
26-30 countries
7.
6
7.
31-35 countries
8.
7
8.
36-40 countries
9.
8 or more
9.
41-45 countries
10. 46-50 countries
11. More than 50 countries
In order to make the findings about the effects of travelling as unequivocal as
possible, the effects of travelling across all three measures of travelling are investigated. If the findings are the same across all three measures, a stronger
claim can be made of the correlation between travelling and trust.
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6.2.
Trust measures
Table 6.2.1. presents the the three dimensions of trust (with the exact wordings
of the three questions), the corresponding response categories, and finally
description of the way the variables are transformed to range from 0-100 with
100 being the most trusting score.
Table 6.2.1. O verview of the trust questions
To what extent do you
trust people you meet
for the first time?
1: Trust completely
2: Trust somewhat
3: Do not trust very much
4: Do not trust at all
To what extent do you
trust people of another
nationality?
1: Trust completely
2: Trust somewhat
3: Do not trust very much
4: Do not trust at all
To what extent do you
trust people of another
religion?
1: Trust completely
2: Trust somewhat
3: Do not trust very much
4: Do not trust at all
Firstly, the scale was recoded
from 1-4 into 0-100 to simplify the interpretation of the
results.
Firstly, the scale was recoded
from 1-4 into 0-100 to simplify the interpretation of the
results.
Firstly, the scale was recoded
from 1-4 into 0-100 to simplify the interpretation of the
results.
Secondly, the scale was reversed in order to make 100
the most trusting score and 0
the least trusting score.
Secondly, the scale was reversed in order to make 100
the most trusting score and 0
the least trusting score.
Secondly, the scale was reversed in order to make 100
the most trusting score and 0
the least trusting score.
In the table below, the national trust scores are listed. The four questions are all
scaled from 0-100 with 100 indicating complete trust.
Table 6.2.2. Trust scores distributed across countries
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There are some global patterns to outline here. First and foremost, it is notable
that in case of each of the three trust variables the global average is below 50
indicating that global trust in people you meet for the first time, people of another religion, and people of another nationality is leaning more towards distrust (0) than trust (100). The global trust in people you meet for the first time is
the lowest at 36, while the other two trust scores (religion and nationality) are at
48 and 49, respectively. This makes a potential positive effect of travelling on
these trust measures even more notable, because the global score (and the
country scores) are fairly low.
There are some national patterns as well. This study shows that Denmark (47),
Norway (43), Sweden (43), and Finland (41) report higher trust levels that are
above the global score of 36. It is also worth noticing that the United States
have the second highest trust level concerning trust in people you meet for the
first time (44). In terms of trust in people with another religion and nationality,
the Scandinavian countries are also top scorers in these categories along with
United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
Even though the national differences are notable, a global focus is employed
in the following section. The main emphasis in this report is to investigate
whether the positive effects of travelling on trust are a global phenomenon.
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In the figure below, the framework of the following analysis is illustrated. The
“Travelling” box consists of the three travelling measures described above and
the “Trust” box contains the three trust measures.
Figure 6.2.1. O verview of the fram ework
Tra velling
Tru st
In order to estimate the correct effects of travelling on trust, it is important to
include potential confounders. Confounders are variables that have the potential to confound the estimated effect of travelling on trust because they impact
travelling patterns as well as trust. Five sociodemographic confounding variables have been identified and will be included in the analysis as fixed factors:
gender, age, income, education, and urbanization. To include them as fixed
factors mean that we can be sure that a potential effect of travelling on trust
can not be attributed to these potentially confounding variables. The included
sociodemographic variables as well as their coding are shown in the table below:
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Table 6.2.3. O verview of sociodem ographic variables
Variable
Description
What is your gender?
1: Men
2: Women
Birth year subtracted 2016.
For every country, we identified the average annual income quartiles
and asked the respondents to indicate which income quartile they
belonged to based on the specific income quartile numbers in that
country. Therefore, respondents in the same categories do not necessarily have the same annual income, but are fitted into the categories based on the national distribution of income.
What is your age?
What is your household’s total annual
income?
1: 0-25 percentile
2: 26-50 percentile
3: 51-75 percentile
4: 76-100 percentile
What is the highest
education you have
completed?
For each country individually, we outlined the relevant education
categories for the respective countries. In the data processing phase,
we constructed the following six education categories based on the
available data:
1: Primary school
2: High school
3: Vocational or technical
4: University bachelor
5: University master
6: University PhD
How many people live
in the town or city you
live in?
See Appendix B for further details.
1: Under 2,000 people
2: 2,001-5,000
3: 5,001-10,000
4: 10,001 – 20,000
5: 20,001-50,000
6: 50,001-100,000
7: 100,001-500,000
8: 500,001-1,000,000
9: More than 1,000,000 people
In the figure shown below, the extended framework including the five sociodemographic variables just presented are illustrated.
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Figure 6.2.2. O verview of the fram ework including the
sociodem ographic variables
G en der
Age
Incom e
Edu cati on
Ur bani zation
Tra velling
Tru st
Following the introduction of the three travel variables, the three trust variables
and the five sociodemographic background variables, we can proceed to answer the main question related to the effects of travelling on trust.
6.3.
Effects of travelling on trust
As indicated in Table 6.3.1 below, there is a positive statistically significant effect of travelling on all three trust concepts. That means that well-travelled
people are the most trusting and that trust can be achieved by travelling more.
More specifically, the table shows the effects on trust across the range of the
three travel variables. For example, trust in people you meet for the first time is
12,16 points higher for people reporting to be well-travelled to a very high
extent compared to people reporting to be well-travelled to a very low extent
on a scale from 0-100. This 12,16 point difference is the direct effect of travelling keeping factors like gender, age, income, education, and urbanization
fixed. This is a substantial finding because factors like education, are controlled
for in this study.
The other two travel variables can be interpreted in the same way. Trust in
people you meet for the first time is 22.37 points higher for people who have
visited 45-50 countries compared to people who have visited 0-5 countries and
12.38 points higher for people who travel abroad 8 times or more per year
compared to people who don’t travel abroad on a yearly basis. See Appendix
A for full reporting with regressions coefficients, standard errors, and indicators
of statistical significance.
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Table 6.3.1. Effects of travelling on trust
Trust in people
you meet for
of another
of another
the first time
religion
nationality
Well-travelled
(very low to very high)
12,16
10,96
11,72
Number of countries
(0-5 countries to 45-50 countries)
22,37
12,28
14,77
Number of travels abroad per year
(0 countries to 8 countries)
12,38
10,22
10,36
Note: All the coefficients shown in Table A is positive statistically significant at the 0,001 level. The
trust scales ranges from 0-100. For regressions results in full detail, see Appendix A.
A comparison between the effects of travelling and the effects of other relevant
variables like income or education reveals that the travel effects are substantial.
For example, trust in people of another religion is 3.48 higher for PhD scholars
compared to people with a primary school certificate. This is about one third of
the travel effects on trust in people of another religion. The pattern is the same
across all trust variables – the travel effects exceeds the education and income
effects.
Table 6.3.2. Effects of travelling com pared to the effects of education
and incom e
Trust in people
you meet for
of another
of another
the first time
religion
nationality
Well-travelled
(very low to very high)
12,16
10,96
11,72
Number of countries
(0-5 countries to 45-50 countries)
22,37
12,28
14,77
Number of travels abroad per year
(0 countries to 8 countries)
12,38
10,22
10,36
Income
(1st quartile to 4th quartile)
4,64
0,89
1,81
Education
(primary school to university PhD.
3,30
3,48
6,27
Note: The trust scales ranges from 0-100. For regressions results in full detail, see Appendix A.
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Even though the effects vary across the different measures of travelling and
trust, the findings point to the same conclusion no matter how one chooses to
look at it. Enhanced trust in people different from ourselves can be achieved if
we travel more.
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7. Conclusion
To our knowledge, this is the first global study to explore the relationship between travelling, trust and thus open-mindedness based on quantitative interviews with 7,200 demographically representative people from all over the
world.
The findings from the regression analyses suggest that travelling increases
open-mindedness in terms of trust in people you meet for the first time, people of another religion, and people of another nationality. These findings are
highly statistically significant and persist even after controlling for the effects of
gender, age, income, education, and urbanisation.
Beside the regression analyses, other important findings from the study supports the claim that travelling makes people more open-minded. When we
asked people about their assessed effects of travelling, almost three in four
people agreed or strongly agreed that travelling has given them a more positive view of people from countries they visited, other cultures in general, and
differences and diversity. In addition, more than half of all the respondents
agreed that there will be less intolerance, less prejudice, and more peace in
the world, if people travelled more.
The unambiguous findings underline that these results are very robust and
valid across different measures of travelling and trust. At the same time, the
results support the findings in Chapter 5 regarding the self-assessed effects of
travelling. Three in four believe that travelling has made them look more positive on other cultures in general. By now, it is possible to claim that these people most likely are correct in their statements because of the unanimous findings above pointing to the positive statistically significant effects of travelling
obtained from the linear regression analysis.
The study findings are in line with most of the academic studies mentioned in
Chapter 4 claiming that intergroup contact in the form of travelling changes
your attitudes towards people who are different from us. When we meet people with a different cultural background, we start seeing things differently and
that can result in altered intergroup attitudes in the form of more trust towards
Side 32 af 41
other people, which can be viewed as a stepping-stone to becoming more
open-minded.
Side 33 af 41
Appendix A: Results from regression analysis
Table A1: The effect of feeling w ell-travelled on trust
Social trust
B
***
Religious trust
SE
B
0,31
2,74
0,67
3,94
National trust
SE
B
SE
***
0,33
2,93
***
0,32
***
0,72
3,73
***
0,69
*
0,03
Well-travelled (1-5)
3,04
Gender
-0,42
Age
0,18
***
0,03
0,02
0,03
0,07
Income
1,11
***
0,33
-0,07
0,36
0,21
0,34
Urbanization
-0,75
***
0,14
-0,17
0,15
-0,25
0,15
Education
Primary school
Reference
High school
Vocational or
nical
-3,00
Reference
Reference
1,69
2,04
1,81
0,59
1,75
tech-5,24
***
1,63
-1,21
1,74
-2,28
1,68
University bachelor
-4,01
*
1,64
1,17
1,75
0,74
1,69
University master
-1,35
1,74
3,72
1,86
3,32
1,80
University PhD
-0,47
3,85
1,36
4,12
4,03
4,01
Constant
25,55
2,24
37,47
2,41
36,88
***
*
***
***
2,34
Note: ***;**;*: p < 0,001; 0,01; 0,05. The dependent variables range from 0 (no trust at all) to 100
(complete trust).
Table A2: The effect of num ber of countries visited on trust
Social trust
B
Countries visited (111)
2,24
***
Religious trust
SE
B
0,21
1,23
0,67
3,97
National trust
SE
B
SE
***
0,23
1,48
***
0,22
***
0,72
3,76
***
0,69
Gender
-0,54
Age
0,13
***
0,03
-0,02
0,03
0,04
0,03
Income
0,97
**
0,34
-0,10
0,36
0,16
0,35
Urbanization
-0,60
***
0,14
-0,06
0,15
-0,14
0,15
Education
Primary school
High school
Vocational or
nical
Reference
-2,48
Reference
Reference
1,70
2,91
1,82
1,53
1,76
1,63
-0,82
1,75
-1,66
1,69
1,75
2,29
1,86
4,50
4,13
5,60
2,30
42,09
tech-4,54
**
University bachelor
-2,91
1,64
2,48
University master
-0,78
1,75
4,76
University PhD
0,00
3,85
2,91
Constant
30,45
2,15
42,79
***
*
***
1,70
*
1,80
4,01
***
2,23
Note: ***;**;*: p < 0,001; 0,01; 0,05. The dependent variables range from 0 (no trust at all) to 100
(complete trust).
Side 34 af 41
Table A3: The effect of travelling abroad per year on trust
Social trust
B
***
Religious trust
SE
B
0,21
1,28
0,67
3,97
National trust
SE
B
SE
***
0,22
1,30
***
0,21
***
0,72
3,63
***
0,70
*
0,03
Travels abroad (1-9)
1,55
Gender
-0,60
Age
0,18
***
0,03
0,01
0,03
0,07
Income
1,13
***
0,34
-0,03
0,36
0,24
0,35
Urbanization
-0,71
***
0,14
-0,14
0,16
-0,23
0,15
Education
Primary school
High school
Vocational or
nical
Reference
-2,52
Reference
Reference
1,71
2,26
1,82
0,83
1,77
tech-4,66
**
1,64
-0,96
1,75
-1,96
1,70
University bachelor
-3,30
*
1,65
1,77
1,76
1,56
1,71
University master
-0,85
1,76
4,10
1,87
3,92
University PhD
0,36
3,88
2,38
4,15
5,15
Constant
29,48
2,18
41,59
2,33
41,16
***
*
***
*
1,82
4,04
***
2,26
Note: ***;**;*: p < 0,001; 0,01; 0,05. The dependent variables range from 0 (no trust at all) to 100 (complete
trust).
Side 35 af 41
Appendix B: Education variable coding
Table B1: Global education variable
Education variable coding
1 = Primary/secondary school
2 = High school
3 = Vocational or technical
4 = University - bachelor
5 = University - master
6 = University - PhD or higher
7 = Other
8 = Don’t know
Table B2: Country specific education variables
Code
Australia
Question
What is the highest education you have completed?
1
Primary school / secondary school
2
TAFE / technical college
3
Vocational training
4
University – undergraduate
5
University – postgraduate
7
Other education
8
Don’t know
Code
Brazil
Question
Qual o seu grau de escolaridade?
1
Ensino fundamental incompleto
1
Ensino fundamental completo
1
Ensino médio incompleto
2
Ensino médio completo
3
Ensino superior incompleto
4
Ensino superior completo
5
Pós-graduação
7
Other
Side 36 af 41
8
Don’t know
Code
China
Question
你的受教育程度：
1
小学
2
中学
2
高中
3
培
学校
4
大学本科
5
研究生
6
博士
7
Other
8
Don’t know
Code
Germany
Question
Was ist der höchste Bildungsabschluss, den Sie erreicht haben?
1
Grundschulabschluss
2
Hauptschulabschluss/Mittlere Reife
3
Berufsausbildung
3
Hochschulreife/Fachhochschulreife
4
Hochschulabschluss
5
Postgradualer Abschluss (Master, Doktorgrad usw.)
7
Anderer Bildungsabschluss
8
Weiß nicht
Code
Denmark
Question
Hvad er den højeste uddannelse, du har gennemført?
1
Folkeskole/grundskole
2
Gymnasial uddannelse (student, HF, HH, HTX og lign.)
3
Erhvervsuddannelse
3
Kort videregående uddannelse
4
Mellemlang videregående uddannelse (bachelor-niveau)
5
Lang videregående uddannelse (kandidat-niveau)
7
Anden uddannelse
8
Ved ikke
Code
Spain
Side 37 af 41
Question
¿Cuál es el ciclo formativo de mayor grado que ha terminado?
1
Educación básica
2
Educación secundaria
3
Educación superior - Formación Profesional
4
Educación superior - Enseñanza universitaria - Grado
5
Educación superior - Enseñanza universitaria - Máster
6
Educación superior - Enseñanza universitaria - Doctorado
7
Otro tipo de formación
8
No lo sé
Code
Finland
Question
Mikä on korkein koulutusaste, jonka olet suorittanut?
1
Peruskoulu
2
Lukio
3
Ammatillinen peruskoulutus
3
Ammatillinen lisäkoulutus
4
Alempi korkeakoulututkinto (kandidaatin tutkinto, ammattikorkeakoulu jne.)
5
Ylempi korkeakoulututkinto
7
Muu koulutus
8
En tiedä
Code
France
Question
Quel est votre niveau de scolarité?
1
Ecole primaire
2
Collège/Lycée
3
Classes préparatoires
3
Formation Professionnelle
3
Formation complémentaire (Apprentissage, etc.)
4
Enseignement supérieur - Licence
5
Enseignement supérieur - Maîtrise
7
Autre
8
Ne sait pas
Code
Italy
Question
Qual è il livello di istruzione più elevato che ha raggiunto?
1
Scuola elementare
2
Scuola media inferiore
Side 38 af 41
3
Scuola superiore/Liceo
4
Laurea di primo livello
5
Laurea magistrale, specialistica, master, dottorato
7
Altro percorso formativo
8
Non so
Code
Mexico
Question
¿Cuál es el ciclo formativo de mayor grado que ha terminado y aprobado?
1
Educación básica/primaria
2
Educación secundaria
3
Carrera técnica
3
Educación media superior - – Bachillerato o preparatoria
4
Educación superior - enseñanza universitaria – Licenciatura o similar
5
Educación superior – enseñanza universitaria – Maestría, Doctorado, Especialización o similar.
7
Otro tipo de formación.
8
No lo sé
Code
Norway
Question
Hva er den høyeste utdannelsen du har fullført?
1
Grunnskole/folkeskole
2
Videregående skole
3
Yrkesfaglig opplæring
3
Kort videre utdanning
4
Høyere utdanning (bachelor-nivå)
5
Høyere utdanning (master-nivå)
7
Annen utdanning
8
Vet ikke
Code
Portugal
Question
Qual é o seu grau de escolaridade (completo)?
1
Ensino primário
2
Ensino secundário
3
Ensino técnico e profissional
4
Ensino superior – licenciatura
5
Ensino superior – mestrado
6
Ensino superior – doutoramento
7
Outro
Side 39 af 41
8
Não sei
Code
Russia
Question
Какой самый высший уровень образования вы получили?
1
Начальная школа
2
Средняя школа
3
Профессиональное образование
4
Высшее образование - бакалавр
5
Высшее образование - магистр
7
Другое
8
Не знаю
Code
Sweden
Question
Vad är din högsta slutförda utbildning?
1
Grundskola
2
Gymnasium
3
Yrkesutbildning
3
Vidare utbildning (kvalificerade lärlingsutbildningar, etc.)
4
Högre utbildning, grundnivå, t.ex. bachelor
5
Högre utbildning, högre nivå, t.ex. magister eller master
7
Annan utbildning
8
Vet inte
Code
Turkey
Question
Tamamladığınız en yüksek eğitim seviyesi hangisi?
1
İlköğretim
2
Ortaöğretim
3
Mesleki eğitim
3
Ön lisans (İki yıllık üniversiteler, Meslek Yüksekokulları, vb.)
4
Yükseköğretim - lisans
5
Yükseköğretim – yüksek lisans
7
Diğer eğitimler
8
Bilmiyorum
Code
United Kingdom
Question
What is the highest education you have completed?
1
Primary school / secondary school (GCSEs)
Side 40 af 41
2
Further education (A Levels, Advanced Apprenticeships, etc.)
3
Vocational training
4
Higher education – undergraduate
5
Higher education – postgraduate
7
Other education
8
Don’t know
Code
United States
Question
What is the highest education you have completed?
1
Elementary school / middle school
2
High school or equivalent (for example GED)
3
Vocational training
3
Associate degree or equivalent
4
Higher education – bachelor’s degree
5
Higher education – master’s degree or higher
7
Other education
Code
South Africa
Question
What is the highest education you have completed?
1
Primary school
3
Secondary school: technical or vocational type
2
Secondary school: university-preparatory type
4
Higher education – undergraduate
5
Higher education – graduate
7
Other education
8
Don’t know
Side 41 af 41